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'Nuns on the Bus' tour Boulder shelter in bid to protect poor against budget cuts

By Electa Draper The Denver Post

Posted:
11/12/2012 07:10:39 PM MST

Updated:
11/12/2012 07:11:20 PM MST

Sister Simone Campbell speaks to a small crowd on Monday during a Nuns on the Bus tour stop at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless on Broadway. The group is touring the country denouncing tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts that they say will hurt the poor.
(
JEREMY PAPASSO
)

"Nuns on the Bus" toured Boulder and other Front Range cities Monday to denounce tax cuts for America's richest 2 percent and budget cuts they say would devastate the poorest Americans.

Instead Sr. Simone Campbell, a lawyer and executive director of Network, a liberal social justice lobby in Washington, spent Veterans Day with half a dozen local nuns touting an alternative "Faithful Budget."

The sisters made stops in Colorado Springs' Meadows Park Community Center and the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless on North Broadway. They've also have scheduled a Denver stop at 9:30 a.m. today at Sen. Michael Bennet's Denver office, 1127 Sherman St..

Talk of the "fiscal cliff" is both sides of the federal budget debate trying to scare people into making bad decisions, several speakers said late Monday afternoon in Boulder.

The choice isn't between a good economy or compassion, said Campbell, the tour leader whose months-long road show in opposition to the proposed budget of GOP vice presidential nominee and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., created a national sensation -- from "The Colbert Report" to Rolling Stone magazine.

"The fact is, the 'fiscal cliff' is not doomsday," Campbell said Monday. "It's not the Grand Canyon, for God's sake. We have to raise taxes. Let the Bush tax cuts expire. We can't afford them. Now we're talking about cutting veterans benefits. That's wrong."

She asked the Boulder crowd of about 100 supporters gathered in the shelter parking lot to repeat her answer: "Reasonable revenues for responsible programs."

Boulder Shelter Executive Director Greg Harms said he was honored the nuns stopped by the 30-year-old private nonprofit shelter, which is neither religious or government-run.

"It seems completely appropriate to have nuns here on Veterans Day," Harms said, because the shelter's founder was Sister Donna Ryan, and its impetus was the exposure death of a Vietnam veteran in a Boulder park.

Campbell said she met privately with Ryan earlier this summer

"We agreed to disagree," she said. "We could say we both care passionately about our country. I tried to tell him stories about the people his cuts would devastate. I tried to touch his heart."

The sisters joked there were perhaps only half a dozen sisters on the bus, but their numbers augmented by "supporters and hangers-on."

Armed with placards, quilts, cardigans and one walker, the mostly older ladies joked about being termed "militant feminists."

American sisters have been criticized by the Vatican for being outspoken on social justice teaching but silent on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

While the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has clashed with Network and other women religious over their support of President Barack Obama's health-care reforms, the bishops also have advocated against budget cuts the harm society's weak and poor.

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